Star-Shattered Fane is a Vault.
Description:
Here was a place sacred to the gods of earth, until a meteor fell on a winter's night. In time, worshippers crept back to the broken ruins. In time, the meteorite itself came to be worshipped as a bringer of dreams. The old altar may yet remain, somewhere beneath the meteorite's lair.
Start Description:
A star fell in the deep desert. It did not quite destroy the sacred place it struck. The treasures of the old altar may remain, hidden beneath the grave of the star. But we must approach the star cautiously: it still resonates with energies from outside the world.
Success Description:
The meteorite lies in the shattered temple, ridged like a sea creature, smoothed by its passage through the atmosphere. The old altar must have been crushed centuries ago, but the meteorite responds to our touch. It hums like wires in wind. Its surface shifts, and it opens like an eye -
End Description:
What has passed? The meteorite is cold and closed and silent. The sand of centuries lies untouched upon it. But here in our hands are the treasures we found within.
How to acquire
It is randomly awarded for exploring A Vagabond's Map [ Secret Histories 12 ].
Obstacles
Desolation - overcome with one of: Forge, Grail
A Hidden Door - overcome with one of: Knock, Lantern
The Fifth Eye Curse - overcome with one of: Heart, Winter
Rewards
The Focus of Amber (Book)
The Manner in which the Alchemist was Spared (Book)
Medusa's Lament (Book)
Wildering Mirror (Tool)
Lagun's Tomb is a Vault.
Description:
A low slope-sided rectangle of mud brick, in an obscure fold of the desert. It is not remarkable to look at, but Lagun was counted among the immortal Long, and no robber has ever breached his tomb.
Start Description:
Lagun's Tomb will be difficult to find in the desert. We must navigate by the stars. Its door has long resisted the assaults of tomb-robbers. We must bring what force we can. There will likely be a curse. We must be prepared for it.
Success Description:
In the central chamber, Lagun, the once-immortal Long, lies peacefully naked on a sandalwood bier. He is perfectly preserved - a slender, dark-skinned man in excellent physical health - but at our approach, he crumbles into blackened flakes like fallen leaves. Objects glint from the remains.
End Description:
We find a pocket-watch, a book, a quantity of Algerian currency - all from our own era. He must have come and gone many times from this place before he resigned himself to his final rest. On the back of the watch, we see engraved the closed eye of the Long society called the Obliviates...
How to acquire
It is randomly awarded for exploring A Vagabond's Map [ Secret Histories 12 ].
Obstacles
Desolation - overcome with one of: Forge, Grail
A Warded Door - overcome with one of: Forge, Knock
Dry Soul Curse - overcome with one of: Heart, Lantern
Rewards
The Voyages of Ferninshun of Oreol (Book)
Atlas of Dreams (Tool)
Alakapurine Shears (Tool)
Holiest Hemolymph (Ingredient)
Azoth (Ingredient)
Messana is a Vault.
Description:
A quietly prosperous village rests in the crook of the river: a surprising splash of green against the dusty land behind. The longevity of the villagers surpasses the natural. What are they hiding?
Start Description:
Messana, where the villagers routinely remain hale and vigorous past their hundredth year. They will resist attempts to pry into their secrets, and they may have curses at their disposal - if we can even penetrate the desert to reach them.
Success Description:
Beneath the granary, we find the deepest secret of Messana: an altar on which are displayed segments of an embalmed human body. Little of it still remains. The visitors must have been feasting on this for years. Is it Long-flesh? That might account for their longevity.
End Description:
Items of note are displayed on the walls. They might be trophies from unwise travellers, or they might have been possessions of the Long. There is no indication whether the Long was a willing victim, an ancestor, or a prisoner, and we'll learn nothing from the villagers now. A Greek inscription on the altar reads: FOR THE FLOOD.
How to acquire
It is randomly awarded for exploring A Vagabond's Map [ Secret Histories 12 ].
Obstacles
Desolation - overcome with one of: Forge, Grail
Watchers - overcome with one of: Edge, Grail, Moth
The Creeping Breath Curse - overcome with one of: Grail, Heart
Rewards
The Songs of the Carapace Cross (Book)
The Sevenfold Slaying of the Seven-Coiled (Book)
Kingskin Bodhrán (Tool)
Temple of Seven Coils is a Vault.
Description:
A crumbling temple in a shadowed defile. It was built, it seems, in the Third History, the one where much later the Worms overran Europe, but it exists in all the Histories now.
Start Description:
'The site will tolerate no life', says the journal of Zane Marc Gentis. So we will find no serpents there. But the place sounds cursed, and Gentis recorded a door that his expedition could not open.
Success Description:
'Seven Coils', said Gentis' journal, but the idol within is an impossible heap of stone serpent - coil upon coil, a knot that dizzies the soul. Wrongness squirms in the temple corners. We should search the place quickly, before its influences overwhelm us.
End Description:
The temple is as clean as if it were newly swept. No sand has crossed the threshold, no dust settled on the idol's horrible twists. We find things tucked away here and there amid the coils, as if they had been playfully left for us to find, or as if the idol had coiled round them.
How to acquire
It is randomly awarded for exploring A Vagabond's Map [ Secret Histories 12 ].
Obstacles
Desolation - overcome with one of: Forge, Grail
A Warded Door - overcome with one of: Forge, Knock
The Worms in the World - overcome with one of: Lantern, Moth
Rewards
In Memory of Gods (Book)
Division Bell (Tool)
Consecrated Lintel (Tool)
Watch-Worms (Ingredient)
A Bitter Atmosphere (Influence)
